Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Last week, on
behalf of the nonprofit conservation organization The Ark Initiative and
several individuals, we filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District
of Columbia challenging the Forest Service’s recent attempts to exclude public
lands in Colorado from roadless protections that those lands have long been
afforded by the agency.In stark
contrast with the Forest Service’s longstanding roadless management regime that
implements the agency’s duties under the Wilderness Act and other laws, in the
Forest Service’s 2012 Colorado Roadless Rule and subsequent site-specific
decisions implementing the regulation the agency has purported to rely on
economic, commercial, and social factors for excluding long-recognized roadless
areas from the nation’s roadless inventory rather than basing such
determinations on the factual condition of the parcel under review (i.e.,
whether the parcel is unroaded and otherwise consists of specified roadless
qualities enumerated in the agency’s land management handbook).These public lands – which are highly desired
by the ski resort industry for future recreational development that is
inconsistent with roadless management values and standards – were all protected
as part of the Forest Service’s roadless inventory prior to the 2012 rule.The plaintiffs have requested that the court
vacate both the regulation’s arbitrary and capricious exclusion of these public
lands from the roadless inventory as well as the site-specific decisions
relying on and implementing the rule’s unlawful roadless inventory
exclusion.The complaint can be found
here.